Sebastian Vettel took yet another demanding victory in Malaysia, following his win in Australia a fortnight ago. The German led from start to finish without worry.
Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld join him on the podium to take their first podium finishes of the season.
Mark Webber narrowly missed out on a podium by just 1.3 seconds, but finished over ten seconds ahead of the two Ferraris’ followed by Lewis Hamilton who suffered rear damage after a collision with Alonso.
Race report below results
Revised Malaysian GP Results following time penalties, denoted by – *
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:37.39.832 | 25 |
| 02. | J. Button | McLaren | +3.2 | 18 |
| 03. | N. Heidfeld | Renault | +25.0 | 15 |
| 04. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +26.3 | 12 |
| 05. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +36.9 | 10 |
| 06. | F. Alonso* | Ferrari | +57.2 | 8 |
| 08. | L. Hamilton* | McLaren | +1:09.9 | 4 |
| 07. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +1:06.4 | 6 |
| 09. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | +1:24.8 | 2 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | +1:30.5 | 1 |
| 11. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 lap | |
| 12. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +1 lap | |
| 13. | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | |
| 14. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | |
| 15. | H. Kovalainen | Team Lotus | +1 lap | |
| 16. | T. Glock | Virgin | +2 laps | |
| 17. | V. Petrov | Renault | Retired | |
| 18. | V. Liuzzi | Hispania | Retired | |
| 19. | J. d’Ambrosio | Virgin | Retired | |
| 20. | J. Trulli | Team Lotus | Retired | |
| 21. | S. Perez | Sauber | Retired | |
| 22. | R. Barrichello | Williams | Retired | |
| 23. | N. Karthikeyan | Hispania | Retired | |
| 24. | P. Maldonado | Williams | Retired |
Full race report:
Nick Heidfeld managed the best start, jumping from his sixth placed grid slot to second, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Vitaly Petrov also managed to slide up alongside Jenson Button into fourth, but lost out to the McLaren driver in turn two.
The biggest loser was Mark Webber. The Australian suffered from the loss of KERS which saw him drop from third to tenth within two laps.
Ruben Barrichello made contact losing his rear-tyre, his team-mate Pastor Maldonado was the first driver to drop-out of the race, followed by the HRT of Narain Kathikeyan.
A brief shower saw a rush into the pits, however it was for dry tyres for all as the shower remained short and light. The opportunity allowed Hamilton and Button to pass Heidfeld who dropped to fifth, but the 2009-world champion struggled for pace after the pass and dropped to fourth almost immediately as Fernando Alonso discovered a speed boost on fresh tyres.
The second round of stops came around lap 25 with Webber the first to react, followed by Button and Hamilton then Vettel with the German coming out behind Felipe Massa who didn’t put up much of a fight as the German uses DRS to pass.
Barrichello joined his team-mate to retire on lap 26, followed by the Sauber of Sergio Perez just a lap later – the Sauber team explained that it was debris from Buemi’s Toro Rosso which disabled his car.
Michael Schumacher relinquished his eight place to Kamui Kobayashi as the Japanese driver used his usual ‘kamikazee’ tactics to pass the seven time champion.
On lap 30 Vettel was told ‘do not use KERS’ which was immediately passed on to the McLaren and Ferrari drivers as they looked to hunt him down.
Petrov began to make some progress, passing Kobayashi using DRS and KERS, after he dropped down the field to ninth.
Hamilton made his third stop on lap 38, a slow six-second pit meant Button jumped him when he made his stop for hard tyres a lap later.
Paul di Resta eased past Nico Rosberg along the back straight without the use of DRS, Rosberg failed to put up a fight, braking very early for the corner to allow the Scott to pass.
Vettel and Alonso make their third stops for the stint on hard tyres, pushing Button into P2, Hamilton P3 and Webber P4.
Despite a brilliant start, the two Renault’s could only fight in the upper midfield at the 3/4 race distance with Heidfeld, Petrov and Massa battling for position.
Alonso and Hamilton had a two lap duel as the Ferrari looked much quicker, however into turn 4 the Spaniard made an error running into the rear of the McLaren massively damaging his front-wing and Hamilton’s rear.
The Ferrari had to pit for a new wing whilst Lewis remained out with minor damage to the rear-floor section.
The damage clearly affected the MP4-26’s pace as Heidfeld eased past, then ran wide allowing Webber past followed by a stop for soft tyres dropping him to eigth.
Petrov spectacularly ran wide and launch his car half a metre into the air, slamming into the ground breaking his steering column and ending his race.
Vettel crossed the line to take his second victory of 2011, followed by Button and Heidfeld.
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